Jamie Peacock's heavily pregnant wife Faye, 33, returned home yesterday after being stranded in Bangkok by the Thai political crisis.

Mrs Peacock, with their four-year-old son Lewis and her mother-in-law Pat Sheffield, were among thousands of tourists stranded in the Thai capital, as they returned home from watching Peacock captain Great Britain in the World Cup in Australia, which his side exited at the semi-final stage. Some airlines will not fly expectant mothers but the family was able to get a flight from a military airport to Stockholm, then on to Manchester.

"I'm very happy that they are back and I just hope everybody else can get back soon," Peacock said.

"It's brilliant to be back," his wife added. "I'm ecstatic but we just feel a bit strange at the moment. We just want to get home now, it is all a bit surreal. It is different when you are pregnant. When you are on holiday in a hotel you can just stay there but when you have medical needs and children ... We are ecstatic we are home.

"We were left just to try to get out by ourselves, we had to get in a taxi in a strange country and hope the driver was taking us to where we wanted to go."

Thousands of tourists remain stranded in Thailand because of a blockade by anti-government protesters at the country's main international airport.